ANAHEIM — For as miserable as much of the first half has been for Mickey Moniak, he can take solace in knowing there’s more than half a season left.
Moniak’s first career grand slam sent the Angels on their way to a 7-5 victory over the Oakland A’s on Tuesday night, continuing an encouraging two weeks for a player who had been slumping.
“He’s been putting in a lot of work,” manager Ron Washington said. “He’s trying to find that consistency. And that big blow he gave us tonight was huge. We really needed it. And he came through for us.”
Closer Carlos Estévez, who has also been much better after an early-season slump, finished off the game with a scoreless ninth, but he gave up a two-out single. Estévez had retired 26 hitters in a row over nine outings, coming up just one out shy of pseudo perfect game.
Moniak was hitting .161 on June 7, the day before hitting coaches Johnny Washington and Tim Laker talked to him about simplifying his approach.
They told Moniak to focus on swinging at the right pitches, having a good bat path and staying balanced, while not worrying so much about everything else.
Since then, Moniak has hit .304 with a .961 OPS in 53 plate appearances.
“Baseball is a weird game, ebbs and flows,” Moniak said. “The goal is to stay as consistent as possible. Just kind of trying to get back to that. Try not to get too high not try not to get too low.”
Moniak’s grand slam in the fourth turned around a game in which the Angels were trailing 2-0 against Oakland right-hander Mitch Spence.
Taylor Ward led off the inning with a double. Willie Calhoun then singled, sending Ward to third. Logan O’Hoppe punched a single up the middle, driving in a run. Zach Neto was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for Moniak.
Moniak got a hanging curveball and he lined it over the right field fence, his fourth homer of the season.
“When you put the team ahead, it’s always a great feeling,” said Moniak, who had the ball from the homer saved in a case in his locker. “I was glad I was able to do it right there.”
Jo Adell provided an insurance run in the sixth. After Moniak walked, Adell drove him in with a double into the left field corner.
An inning later, Ward belted his 14th homer of the season, and second in as many nights, to push the lead to 7-3.
Five of the Angels’ nine hits were extra-base hits, helping them generate enough offense to get a victory for Tyler Anderson on a night when he struggled.
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Anderson has been sharp for most of the season, often getting through six or seven innings without much damage, but he couldn’t put the ball where he wanted it on Tuesday night.
In the third inning, he walked three hitters and he hit one, plunking Tyler Nevin with the bases loaded on a 1-and-2 pitch. He had just walked Brent Rooker with the bases loaded.
Anderson gave up a homer to Rooker in the fifth inning, his final one of the night.
“Not good command,” Anderson said. “Kind of all over the place, falling behind, walking guys. Not a good place to be right there… I felt like in the first inning it started that way and it got worse and worse. The adjustments I wanted to make, instead of making it better, it made it worse.”
Anderson’s performance left four innings for Angels relievers on the night before a bullpen game.
Hunter Strickland and Luis Garcia easily got through the sixth and seventh, but then the A’s turned an error and two bloop singles into two runs against José Marte in the eighth. Ben Joyce came in and got out of the inning with a double play, preserving the two-run lead.